Link Roundup: Hafner's Extension, Rickey's Return

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 12, 2007 2:05 PM EDT in News

-P- The Indians signed Travis Hafner to a four-year, $57 million deal with a club option for 2013. The money initially seems reasonable, and the option is nice, but I'd be worried about this deal if I were the Indians. Hafner's not a young player - he got a late start to his career and is already 30. Moreover, he's already showing signs of decline, hitting just .262/.397/.452 this year. And he's a big dude and an immobile career DH; he's not the sort of player who ages well. Finally, they already had him signed through 2008. It may well turn out that he won't be worth a multi-year contract after that anyway. This is a rare bad move for the Indians - think of the way Mo Vaughn's career ended. That's the downside.

-P- The Mets have hired Rickey Henderson to be their new hiting coach, replacing Rick Down. I guess Rickey has given up those aspirations of returning to the big leagues as a player - Oakland had offered to let him join the roster for a day in September so that he could retire as an Athletic, but I suppose he won't be doing that. I don't know what kind of coach he'll be - Henderson famously had trouble remembering his teammates' names, so one wonders how relatable he'll be - but his approach as a hitter when he played was outstanding, and the game is better when Rickey is in it. Here are a couple pages of Rickey quotes. Here's my favorite:

And, one final story I came across was a bizarre shouting match Rickey had with none other than El Duque during a spring training game in 2002. It wasn't clear what exactly bothered El Duque. He began yelling and they eventually had to be held back. "He needs to grow up a little bit," Rickey said. "I ain't a kid. When I broke into the game, he was crawling on his hands and knees. Unless he's as old as I am. He probably is."

-P- The Mets weren't the only team to get a new hitting coach - the Diamondbacks replaced their hitting coach, Kevin Seitzer, with Rick Schu. I'm not sure what kind of coach Schu will be, but the D'Backs needed to make a change. If you're a subscriber, go back and look at the PECOTA projections for Diamondbacks hitters. They barely resemble what has actually happened. Arizona has a ton of young hitters, and every one of them except Mark Reynolds has underperformed. Chris Young, Stephen Drew and Carlos Quentin are way too good to have OPSes around .700 or lower, especially while playing in that ballpark. For the future of the club, the Diamondbacks must get these guys on track. Also, they may still make the playoffs if they start hitting at all. They're only two and a half games behind the Wild-Card leader right now.

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So the lesson is . . .

If you're not hitting well but you're still winning, you get a new hitting coach because you want to make your hitting as good as the rest of your team, but if your hitting sucks and you're losing, you keep your hitting coach because he fits in better.

by WTM on Jul 12, 2007 2:45 PM EDT reply actions

Pirates of old.

Oakland just called up ex-Buc J.J. Furmaniak. Link. You may remember him as the guy we acquired for Dave Ross. He's actually been playing pretty well this year, spending most of his time at shortstop at AAA and hitting .277/.361/.457 .

Guys like him make me wonder about our player development people. He hit well for SD before the trade, sucked on toast for one season at Indy, and has bounced right back once he got out of the organization. When you combine it with Craig Stansberry's success this year...

by Vlad on Jul 12, 2007 3:22 PM EDT reply actions

Furmaniak and Stansberry

In Furmaniak's case, some of the difference may have to do with going from the PCL to the International League and back to the PCL. And Stansberry not only switched from the IL to the PCL, but was getting his first taste of Class AAA pitching when he was with the Pirates. You may be right, but in the absence of better evidence, I'm not sure I'd make much of this.

I didn't really understand the Stansberry dump, by the way. He could still have a decent career as a utility infielder with some pop, and there was so much crap on the 40 man when the Pirates dropped him.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 12, 2007 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Some of it is probably park/league...

...but there isn't 250 points of OPS worth of difference between the two environments.

It's particularly odd in Furmaniak's case because he had hit a lot better at Indy post-trade in '05: .288/.315/.410. That's nothing special, but it's nowhere near as bad as he was last year.

All together, it made me wonder whether they tried to make some kind of adjustment and it didn't take.

by Vlad on Jul 12, 2007 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions

You may be on to something...

"The 2006 season wasn't as kind to Furmaniak[...] Instead, he points to some adjustments he made to his swing and to his offensive approach that he feels threw him off of his game. "I tried to make some adjustments this season to be less aggressive and I think it hurt me. I think when you have been at AAA for a few years like I have you sometimes think that you have to change things about your style to make it to that next level," Furmaniak said."

http://jjfurmaniak.blogspot.com/2006/11/scoutcom-article.html

Of course that's kind of a generic type of adjustment to make, and could just be one of those things a player throws out to find a reason for a bad season.

by Dignan on Jul 12, 2007 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

If he was trying to be LESS aggressive...

then the Pirates surely had nothing to do with it, because that's not the kind of advice they would give.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 12, 2007 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah I thought about that

It certainly doesn't fit their MO. Unless you consider their MO to be take what works and break it, then yes, it does.

by Dignan on Jul 12, 2007 4:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Ha!

You've got a point there.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 12, 2007 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Hafner

I can't help but think about Jason Bay when we're talking about Hafner. Bay is what, 28 or 29 now? I get the feeling that he might be one of these guys who have their peak but don't last entirely too long. I don't know if I'd necessarily want the Pirates to lock him down to a huge long term contract either.

by Dignan on Jul 12, 2007 4:39 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah, I agree

Although I think Hafner is even scarier because he's so unathletic. Bay at least had some defensive value and was a really good basestealer in his first couple years in the league.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 12, 2007 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions